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Aiming high

Hal Hodson reports on SAFFiR, a firefighting robot built for the US navy (14 February, p 22). Inventor Meredith Thring also developed one in the 1960s, while at the University of Sheffield.

This autonomous machine was intended as a nightwatchman in factories, following a pre-programmed route and investigating and dealing with any fires it detected.

A demonstration was given to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1961 at the opening of our new building. However, working outside in daylight raised an issue. On its way to deal with the test fire, the robot’s camera spotted the sun.

Correctly determining this was much hotter, it turned its attention to the more serious fire and bravely tried to extinguish the sun.University of Sheffield, UK